This is the blog of Brian Long, Windows, Mac & mobile trainer, trouble-shooter and consultant.

Tuesday, 22 May 2012

C++Builder info/resources

Embarcadero seem to be ramping up their C++ machine now and are issuing a bunch of information on the subject of C++Builder. This seems in keeping with Microsoft who are doing the same, what with C++ being one of the standard tools for developing Windows 8 applications.

There is also a dedicated C++ webinar looming at the end of May. This will be presented by Dan Wahlin, a Microsoft MVP and is all about creating Windows and Mac OS X applications from a single C++ code base. The signup link is here.

An important posting came from John Ray Thomas, Embarcadero Director of Product Management, that being the C++ roadmap from Q2 2012. This lays out the plans for the new C++ tool chain, targeting 64-bit Windows, ARM for iOS and Android, support for C99 and C++11, BOOST and ACE and more. Much of this is already in Beta 1 and soon to enter Beta 2. The current plan is to support C++11, 64-bit Windows and iOS before the end of 2012, with Android support coming in the first half of 2013.

Given that C++Builder XE2 already makes use of a highly customised clang front-end, some have speculated (see the comments on this post) that it would make sense that a lot of this support would come from continuing this development and making use of the LLVM back-end, as that already supports multiple targets.

Finally, Embarcadero are offering the following deal to C++Builder users. If you buy XE2 with maintenance then you will get priority access to a preview of the new compiler as and when it starts appearing and also get you all this new functionality as and when it ships. In addition, the cost will be discounted by 20% until 29th June 2012.